It interferes with my regular driving because my car has stalled twice in traffic the first three weeks I've had the car. I now always shut it off when I start my car. To me, getting slightly better gas mileage does not equate with the possibility of not knowing when I'll have to manually restart the engine but knowing for sure that sooner or later, I will. That possibility occurs not because of anything I've done but because the manufacturer has provided a feature that defaults to a system that occasionally fails to work.

I know that pushing a button to override this feature when I start the car is no big deal. But I do know that I shouldn't even have to do that. For that reason, I definitely want the update to the last user mode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frogman

I found that I was dreading coming to a stop to see how much the engine would shake the car when ASS stops the engine. Sometimes it's as smooth as silk and I think hey, this is great, and then other times it's so violent that I think the engine is going to rip itself out of the mounts. Plus, as was said before, the car lurches when this happens and everyone it the cars feels it.

Same on restart; sometimes it's really smooth, and other times it's really rough. No real pattern.

Then, once, I was in a intersection ASS stalled the engine on restart.

I was stopped in the intersection, ASS kicked in, I let my foot off the brake, and the engine stalled. The iDrive bings with a fault saying that ASS failed, I had to scramble to re-press the brake, push the start button, then press the throttle to go and end up just reving the engine. Looked at the shifter and realized that the car put itself in NEUTRAL! My adrenaline is pumping like crazy while I selected drive while getting honked at by people behind me. This is not something I want to repeat and definitely not something I want my wife to deal with!

So, I coded my car to remember the last ASS setting and I leave the dang thing off; I couldn't be happier. I don't worry about my engine stalling or shaking, or lurching any more.

If BMW can address these issues, I'd be the first to re-enable ASS, but not the way it works now.

I'm glad (not sure that's the right word) that I'm not the only one. Or rather, I'm glad it's not just our X3 that has some kind of strange problem. I'm pretty good when things go wrong, but being in traffic and having your car die unexpectedly is unnerving. Like, you, the restart process wasn't entirely intuitive, and it took me longer than I'd like to restart the car. I was *really* displeased in that moment.

Dont own the new f30 yet but when you start the car and you turn off ass and when u strt it up next time will it be on or automatcally off again?

For the 2012 models, without coding or the retrofit, it will be re-enabled next time the engine is started. The 2013 model is supposed to remember the last setting, but I don't know if anyone has verified it yet.

For the 2012 models, without coding or the retrofit, it will be re-enabled next time the engine is started. The 2013 model is supposed to remember the last setting, but I don't know if anyone has verified it yet.

We have a '13 and it does not rem the last setting - have to get it coded (letting dealer do it); however, our CA says eventually the '13s will start to come w/this coding as standard.

BMW auto start stop sucks compared to the one used by Mercedes Benz. Those guys really engineered the system, piston firing aid, adding oil pressure to the tranny, and even adding a second battery. I can see a three year old BMW whose battery is starting to fail, stuck in L.A. traffic unable to restart after two hours of stop and go traffic. Man other motorists are going to start hating BMWs even more,

I was stopped in the intersection, ASS kicked in, I let my foot off the brake, and the engine stalled. The iDrive bings with a fault saying that ASS failed, I had to scramble to re-press the brake, push the start button, then press the throttle to go and end up just reving the engine. Looked at the shifter and realized that the car put itself in NEUTRAL! My adrenaline is pumping like crazy while I selected drive while getting honked at by people behind me. This is not something I want to repeat and definitely not something I want my wife to deal with!

So, I coded my car to remember the last ASS setting and I leave the dang thing off; I couldn't be happier. I don't worry about my engine stalling or shaking, or lurching any more.

Do you know how the CAR put itself in neutral? Cos it seems a little unlikely.

Do you know how the CAR put itself in neutral? Cos it seems a little unlikely.

I went through the same thing. He's not lying. The whole ordeal is very unsettling when it happens. It happened to me during a perfectly timed stop/start. I pulled up to a stop sign at a street in a private neighborhood. Being a responsible driver, I brought the car to a full stop. Because it was a private neighborhood, and I had clear visibility, I started to go almost immediately. I completely forgot about the stop/start, but it shut the engine down right as I was letting go of the brake, which kicked the start sequence in at the same moment. The car jerked a bit, and the engine stalled. Getting it started again involves a lot more steps than you'd think.

With a manual it works great, car doesn't shut off until you let the clutch out with the shifter in neutral, like you would at a red light. It restarts as soon as you press clutch in, giving you time to shift into gear and go.

Yes the ASS isnt much of a pain with MT...just dont let off clutch at a stop. Mine is coded off by default. I remember mentioning that i didnt want it to my SA unless they 2011 have it off by default.

For the 2012 models, without coding or the retrofit, it will be re-enabled next time the engine is started. The 2013 model is supposed to remember the last setting, but I don't know if anyone has verified it yet.

We have a '13 and it does not rem the last setting - have to get it coded (letting dealer do it); however, our CA says eventually the '13s will start to come w/this coding as standard.

Any word on when the 2013s will start coming coded to remember the last user setting or if this will even be the case at some point?

I've coded the TCM_MSA_MEMORY option to activ. With ASS off, switching to ECO-PRO turns ASS on, but switching back to comfort, ASS gets switched off again. So, it looks like it remembers the setting for comfort and sports mode, but turns ASS on for ECO PRO mode, which kind of makes sense.

Sorry, I have to amend what the TCM_MSA_MEMORY coding change does for me.

If ASS is disabled, switching from Comfort to Sport and back leaves ASS disabled as stated before. Also, switching to ECO PRO re-enables ASS.

The correction is that then switching back to Comfort or Sport will NOT re-disable ASS, it stays enabled, so you have to manually disable ASS again. Oh well...

This sounds exactly like the behavior described by Frankisme after getting the SIB/TSB retrofit.

Good deal. This is how MOST features should be, default to last used mode.. not change modes every time you restart the car.

ASS might not be so bad on a manual transmission car, but I had the displeasure of experiencing it on a Drive for Team USA car, and the car shook like a schoolbus starting up, as the engine loaded up against the torque converter (yes, the car started before the light turned green 90% of the time).

They need to smooth the system out, or give the car enough battery capacity to survive through a whole red light. I'm sure if it ONLY started up when I lifted my foot off the brake, the shaking wouldn't be nearly as violent.

But I suppose it's irrelevant as I wouldn't spend those kinds of bucks on an automatic.

Sorry, I have to amend what the TCM_MSA_MEMORY coding change does for me.

If ASS is disabled, switching from Comfort to Sport and back leaves ASS disabled as stated before. Also, switching to ECO PRO re-enables ASS.

The correction is that then switching back to Comfort or Sport will NOT re-disable ASS, it stays enabled, so you have to manually disable ASS again. Oh well...

This sounds exactly like the behavior described by Frankisme after getting the SIB/TSB retrofit.

With the TSB retrofit...

If I never, ever use Eco Pro mode and only toggle between Sport and Comfort, if I disable ASS once it will then 'stick' and stay off no matter how many times I turn the engine on/off and switch between Sport and Comfort. Is that accurate? It's only Eco Pro mode that reintroduces ASS 'on', yes?

If I never, ever use Eco Pro mode and only toggle between Sport and Comfort, if I disable ASS once it will then 'stick' and stay off no matter how many times I turn the engine on/off and switch between Sport and Comfort. Is that accurate? It's only Eco Pro mode that reintroduces ASS 'on', yes?

BJ

Yes and yes. That's the way the coded memory function works for me.

Someone who has the retrofit will have to confirm that's the way it works for them.

I guess you'll know in a a few hours. Let us know how it works for you!

The update's done, very painless, once the dealer got the authorization from BMW it took less than an hour to do the physical recode. Here's how it functions:

Remembers last state always.

If stop engine in Comfort mode, ASS stays off on restart.

If stop engine in Sport mode, ASS stays off on restart.

If swap mode from Comfort to Sport mode, ASS stays off.

If swap mode to Eco Pro mode, ASS turns on.

If stop engine in Eco Pro mode, ASS stays on on restart.

In a nutshell, behaves as you'd expect. You can jump between the Sport and Comfort mode as much as you want, ASS stays off. So long as you turn ASS off once and never put the car in Eco Pro mode, it'll never bother you again.